The train, metro and bus operator for the Paris region, RATP, is accused of mishandling a number of cases involving staff who say they have been the victims of sexual or sexist violence. Mediapart has collected the testimonies of seven female employees or former employees who complain about how the public transport company, whose full name is the Régie Autonome des Transports Parisiens, has reacted to their claims. This follows a separate investigation by the newspaper Libération into RATP, which is the world’s fourth largest public transport operator, employing 64,000 people.
In one case it took more than three years before a woman who was subjected to sexist behaviour found out what punishment had been given to her abuser; in another, RATP ignored a company doctor's recommendation that a bus driver be moved from the route where she had been sexually assaulted by a passenger.
Among these testimonies are the stories of N’Dylia Goloko and Fatma B. which were broadcast on Mediapart's online programme 'À l’air libre' (see below). Some of the women describe sexual harassment or assaults by colleagues or passengers, others testify to the discrimination they have suffered after telling their bosses they were pregnant.
During 2019 and 2020 RATP group management was informed about 46 claims of sexist behaviour, sexual harassment or sexual assaults. Twenty-six of these 46 reports led to investigations, and in 18 of these cases punishments ranging from warning letters to sackings were handed out, according to figures provided to Mediapart by RATP.
Vesna Nikolov, of the European Association against Violence against Women at Work (AVFT), said that the difference in these figures between the number of alerts and the number of investigations carries out was unusual. “When a company is informed of information relating to sexist and sexual violence, it should carry out an investigation which should meet the requirements of impartiality, speed and seriousness,” she said.
Responding to this discrepancy in figures, Murielle Dubois, who has been the RATP lead on sexist and sexual violence issues since March 2019, said the first step taken by the transport operator in such cases was to carry out a fact-finding exercise. This form of pre-investigation, she said, aims to find out in advance if there is enough substance in the complaint to warrant the opening of an investigation. “All the reports we receive get specific attention, they are all examined,” she said.
“Carrying out a 'pre-investigation' is illegal,” responded Vesna Nikolov. “It's a way of playing for time, perhaps to water down the facts a little, and a way of showing that they are doing something while at the same time not doing very much. And it also implies that you need to check the credibility of the woman's word.”
The women to whom Mediapart has spoken share the same unhappiness about RATP's procedures. Among them is 'Mélanie' – not her real name – who is a bus driver at the transport operator. She told Mediapart that she was held and sexually assaulted by colleagues in June 2018. She said that after a hectic night shift she joined two security staff in their local bar for a coffee before going home. It was, she said, at around two o'clock in the morning.
“Suddenly they were talking to me about my guy, they told me I was a pretty girl. They said that the three of us were going to have some fun,” she recalled. She said no and then the tone changed. She said one of the security staff “grabbed me by the neck” saying that he was going to “give me some pleasure”.
“I cried out, I shouted for help, I pushed him, he put his hand on my bottom and my crotch,” said Mélanie, who in the end ran off. She recalls having had a panic attack the next day. She informed her line manager who told senior management about it. But it was only five months later that she was called into RATP headquarters to be interviewed as part of an internal investigation that had been opened.
“The questions were slanted,” said Mélanie. Mediapart has seen a transcript of her interview. One question was: “How often do you go for a drink with security staff after your shift?” Another was: “Do you think it's normal to go to the security centre [editor's note, the security staff offices] at two o'clock in the morning?”
“A month later they called to tell me that they were taking no further action, that they didn't have enough facts,” said Mélanie. “I knew they weren't going to believe me, I knew I wouldn't get anywhere.”
Questioned about this case, RATP said that the investigation had “started quickly after it was reported”, that it had “lasted several weeks” but that the “investigation's conclusions were unable to corroborate the accusations” made by Mélanie.
Fatma B. - who spoke on 'À l’air libre' about her problems at work when she was pregnant – told how she was sexually assaulted by one of her bosses in December 2018. Some while later the same boss directed some sexist comments at her in front of a group of colleagues. “I decided that was going too far,” she recalled. She sent a report to management and asked for a face-to-face confrontation with her boss. Management agreed.
During the face-to-face meeting the boss concerned “did not dismiss the facts”, according to an account of the encounter drawn up by RATP and approved by all parties. “He regretted having acted in this way,” the account noted. No investigation was begun. “The facts date back to 2018 and I was not instructed to deal with them,” explained the RATP's Murielle Dubois.
Vesna Nikolov said that the procedure employed had not been the right one. “You must have an investigation even if events took place in a closed office. A face-to-face confrontation is traumatic for victims. It doesn't seem appropriate to me to have one as part of a disciplinary investigation,” she said.
Fatma B. tried on several occasions to find out what punishment her boss had received, but her request was turned down each time. It was only at the start of May 20121, nearly three and a half years after the events, and when the case had already had media coverage, that she was finally informed by RATP that he had been suspended for five days.
In August 2020 a passenger touched 'Nadège' – not her real name – on the bottom as the bus driver started her shift at a bus terminus for a route in the suburbs of north Paris. The employee made a complaint and was signed off work.
In a written recommendation seen by Mediapart the company doctor advised that the driver should “change route” and “only work mornings”. The doctor added that it seemed that Nadège needed “regular psychiatric follow-up” because the incident had brought back “older traumatic events”.
Yet RATP did not follow these recommendations even though, as the AVFT note, they are obliged to. “When I went back to work I was put back on the same service on which I'd been assaulted,” said Nadège. She tried to get the doctor's recommendations applied but in vain. Finally, at the end of November 2020, she went off on sick leave again after a “psychological relapse”.
Nadège has been back at work since early May on what she calls “quieter routes”. However, the organisation at RATP responsible for handling issues such as workplace insurance, maternity and disability refused to treat the assault as a workplace accident. In its letter of refusal, seen by Mediapart, the Caisse de Coordination aux Assurances Sociales (CCAS) said that the “accident” of which Nadège was a victim “cannot be covered within the legislation relating to professional risks”.
Murielle Dubois explained RATP's actions. “When a works doctor recommends a change of position or environment there is always a dialogue between the doctor and the employee's management team,” she said, referring to the original decision to keep Nadège driving on the same route on which she was assaulted. “It's done on a case by case basis and we work in agreement with our doctors.” She added: “I'd have helped with this request had it been referred to me.” In relation to the refusal to recognise the assault as a workplace incident, Murielle Dubois said this was the responsibility of the CCAS and not RATP. “This organisation comes to its views in complete autonomy and independence in relation to the company. And the company complies with the its decisions.”
Responding to the issue of how some RATP employees who are victims of discrimination or sexual or sexist violence feel a lack of support, Frédéric Potier, who used to head the inter-ministerial government body fighting racism, anti-Semitism and anti-LGBT hate (DILCRAH), and who is currently the executive in charge of ethical issues at the RATP group, said that the key issue was the “publicity given to and knowledge of all these [support] measures” among staff. He accepted there was “room for progress” at the RATP in ensuring that no one was left feeling “isolated”.
Potier said that the range of measures that RATP has at its disposal is “pretty complete”. He said: “Since the appointment of Murielle [Dubois] lots of things have been done: brochures, five-minute videos accessible on the [RATP] intranet with quizzes, workshops run by professionals encouraging women to speak out.” He concluded: “We are not naïve about the scale of the work on those issues.”
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- The original French version of this article can be found here.
English version by Michael Streeter